This invention relates to a collar having a retractable leash for an animal, such as a dog.
In view of the myriad of leash laws and ordinances extant or under consideration by various municipalities there is a need for an improved leash for domestic animals. The leash must be immedately accessible, provide single hand control of the animal, provide quick availability, afford relief from the inconvenience of tangling in the dog's legs and enhance the mutual feeling of presence between animal and person. To fulfill these requirements the leash must have a retractor mechanism and such mechanism must be combined with the collar to operate as a single unit. This relieves the dog owner of a search for the leash before each outing, it relieves the owner of attempting to attach a leash snap onto the collar of an excited or an impatient animal and eliminates the problem of storage and availability when not in use.
In prior collars having a retractor mechanism the weight of the mechanism rotates the collar so that the handle of the retracted leash is normally carried on the underside of the animal's neck. This is not a convenient position for grasping in an emergency and the resulting rotation of the collar when the leash is pulled upward is irritating to the animal and destructive of the hair on the neck.